New Yorkers: Sonia Sotomayor

Earlier this month, Sonia Sotomayor, the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, released her memoir My Beloved World, which Oprah called a “love letter” to her life growing up in The Bronx. “Because that’s what it is,” responded Sotomayor, who lived in a South Bronx tenement and the well-maintained, racially and ethnically mixed, working-class Bronxdale Houses housing projectin Soundview during her childhood. “So many people grew up with challenges, as I did. There weren’t always happy things happening to me or around me. But when you look at the core of goodness within yourself—at the optimism and hope—you realize it comes from the environment you grew up in.” Now that’s one Wise Latina! The New York Times describes Sotomayor’s book as “an eloquent and affecting testament to the triumph of brains and hard work over circumstance, of a childhood dream realized through extraordinary will and dedication.”

Miranda Noland is the Senior Photo Editor for Latina.com. She handles all the photo needs for the site and occasionally writes a thing or two. Growing up in a small town in Missouri, she collected (and hoarded) magazines and dreamed of working at one someday. She studied art and design at Drury University and moved to New York City after graduating. She loves being an aunt to her two nephews and has recently moved to be closer to them. She's a pop culture junkie who watches way too much television, and she still hoards magazines.

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